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posted by cmn32480 on Sunday August 28 2016, @05:06PM   Printer-friendly
from the can-they-stop-me-from-seeing-the-neighbor-in-his-speedo? dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

By fine-tuning the chemical composition of nanoparticles, A*STAR researchers have developed a coating that is promising for fabricating smart windows suitable for tropical countries. Such windows block almost all the infrared heat from sun rays, while admitting most of the visible light.

The transparency of glass to visible light makes it the most common way to let light into a building. But because glass is also transparent to near-infrared radiation—windows also let in heat, giving rise to the well-known greenhouse effect. While this heating is welcomed in colder climates, it means that air conditioning has to work harder to maintain a comfortable temperature in in tropical climes.

Developing smart windows that allow most of the sun's light in, while blocking near-infrared radiation, would cut energy costs and reduce carbon emissions.

"In tropical Singapore, where air conditioning is the largest component of a building's energy requirements, even a small reduction in heat intake can translate into significant savings," notes Hui Huang of the A*STAR Singapore Institute of Manufacturing and Technology.

Huang and his co-workers have developed such windows by coating glass with tin oxide nanoparticles doped with small amounts of the element antimony. By varying the nanoparticles' antimony concentration, they could optimize their ability to absorb near-infrared radiation.

"Our infrared shielding coating, with 10-nanometer antimony-doped tin oxide nanoparticles, blocks more than 90 per cent of near-infrared radiation, while transmitting more than 80 per cent of visible light," says Huang. "These figures are much better than those of coatings obtained using commercial antimony-doped tin oxide nanopowders. In particular, the infrared shielding performance of our small antimony-doped tin oxide nanocrystals is twice that of larger commercial antimony-doped tin oxide powders."


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  • (Score: 1) by Francis on Sunday August 28 2016, @06:16PM

    by Francis (5544) on Sunday August 28 2016, @06:16PM (#394282)

    I dunno, that's logic, albeit a single switch.

    But yeah, it would be great if it could be switched on and off as during the summer you're going to want to block those rays, but during the winter you'd want to let it through.

  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday August 28 2016, @08:07PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Sunday August 28 2016, @08:07PM (#394314)

    A cousin of this story from about three years ago is here

    http://newscenter.lbl.gov/2013/08/14/raising-the-iq-of-smart-windows/ [lbl.gov]

    Yeah its basically making a big LCD panel, you can turn it on and off. Also its E field operated so:

    1) Theoretically no current consumption (LOL) means no wattage if its DC driven (old fashioned LCDs can't be DC driven, although these are not old fashioned LCDs, but just sayin')

    2) Being a big capacitor with a considerable E field to mess with nano-particles, broken glass will resemble star trek explosions with arcs and sparks and stuff everywhere.

    3) Materials are not cheap and not necessarily as healthy to eat as water, people enjoy licking windows, its not coming to your house any time soon.

    The main problem with these things is its cheaper to build a high R value solid wall and mount a cheap solar panel on one side of the wall and a light bulb on the other side of the wall. In fact current models are so expensive its cheaper to build a solar panel farm, and use it to run cameras outside connected to TVs inside.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 28 2016, @11:55PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 28 2016, @11:55PM (#394360)

      People lick windows?

      • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday August 29 2016, @01:49AM

        by Gaaark (41) on Monday August 29 2016, @01:49AM (#394388) Journal

        I know Windows likes to fuck it's users! 😁

        --
        --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29 2016, @04:22AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29 2016, @04:22AM (#394454)

        Windowlicker [youtube.com]